Sunday, March 10, 2013

The New Yorker is pretty much the only (non-entertainment) print magazine I get around to looking at. Sorry, Progressive; sorry, Nation … I let you lapse. Web offerings suffice to keep me informed, I hope. But I can't yet do without The New Yorker.

So, perusing the current profile article on Justice Ginsberg, I was stunned to see this right there alongside perfume ads, TV show promos, and Microsoft:

Now that takes me back. Insurrectionary images for sale at a New York gallery auction? Evidently so.

A little internet research reveals that the artist, Emory Douglas, is still around and still kicking. In fact, unknowingly, I recently photographed one of his contemporary agitprop posters on the wall at a community meeting:

In 2009, Douglas was interviewed at length about joining the Black Panther Party, creating its images, and the Black liberation movement's legacy. This YouTube is a fascinating account of people that the government tried hard to exterminate in the late '60s -- well worth 10 minutes of your time.

I sure hope Douglas is getting the benefit of that swank New York art auction. He apparently also sells images through this website.

3 comments:

I think my generation was one of the first to see the injustice in the treatment of black Americans and to make a concerted effort to change the mindset of the country. I participated in fair housing marches and demonstrations for civil rights and I taught my children that all races are people and deserve respect and the same rights as white people do. I can see that today's young people seem more open to that mindset -- I'm not saying that everything is perfect, I know it isn't, but I was proud to be able to vote for Jesse Jackson in a Democratic primary for President and to vote Obama into office twice. We still have a long way to go, but I believe we're headed in the right direction.

What's this blog about?

My musings on current events, current projects, current anxieties and current delights.

I started this under the Bush regime when any grain of sand thrown into the gears of the over-reaching imperial state seemed worthwhile.

I have worked to elect more and better Democrats -- and to hammer the shit out of them once we get them in office so they do the things their constituents want and need. It's a big job.

I have endured the dashed potential for a more transformational regime under Obama. The man has made himself an accomplice in the imperial crimes of his predecessor as well as committing his own. He has also almost certainly been the most progressive president most of us will live to see. I fear we'll look back on his years in office with mild gratitude for a respite from national leadership that was habitually stupid and vicious, as well as wrong.

Visitors here will find a lot of commentary on books I'm reading. I am very intentionally reading intensively offline these days. When it feels hard to find direction, it's time to learn something new.

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About Me

I'm a progressive political activist who runs trails and climbs mountains whenever any are available. I've had the privilege to work for justice in Central America (Nicaragua and El Salvador), in South Africa, in the fields of California with the United Farmworkers Union, and in the cities and schools of my own country. I'm a Christian of the Episcopalian flavor; we think and argue a lot. For work, I've done a bit of it all: run an old fashioned switch-board; remodeled buildings and poured concrete; edited and published periodicals, reports and books; and organized for electoral campaigns. I am currently an independent consultant to organizations seeking "help when you have to make a fight."